444 Jefferson Avenue

444 Jefferson Avenue 1986 Survey Information

Site No.: L-0364

Address: 444 Jefferson Avenue

Name: Walter C. Trout House

Date: 1913

Town: Lufkin

Block: Hill Addition, Block 2

Lot: 1

Condition: Good; altered by vinyl siding.

Description: 2-story; wood frame with yellow vinyl siding; brick foundation; irregular plan; hip roofs with deep eaves, brackets, composition shingles, interior brick chimney, hipped dormer; extended porch, gable roof over entry, square brick columns, low brick wall, wood-paneled entry door with leaded glass upper light and side lights; wood double-hung windows with 9/1, 12/1, 18/1 sash, shutters on front; detached 2-car garage at rear; sun porch on east with ribbon of multipaned casement windows, small balcony on second story with plain wood railing. Before Jefferson Street was created in 1913, Kiln Street ran on the other side of these residences. There is still evidence of the old street in the alley way.

Significance: Good example of style. Mr. Walter C. Trout (1874-1947) moved to Lufkin from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1905 as general manager of Lufkin Foundry and Machine Co. He helped to expand the company from the lumber industry to include oil industry. W. C. Trout and his father, W. H. Trout, owned a number of patents on sawmill equipment. He joined Lufkin Foundry and Machine Company after being a sawmill machinery salesman for Allis-Chalmers Company. In 1938 he was one of the organizers of the Texas Foundries, Inc., another major industry in Lufkin. He was married to Nellie Percy in 1896 in Milwaukee. They had three sons, William Walter, Edward Percy, and James Howard. The 1905 directory shows that Walter C. Trout had a residence telephone. The 1928 directory lists the address as the residence of Walter C. Trout. The history of Lufkin Industries notes that the house was built by W. C. Trout for his wife Nellie and their sons after their first home in Lufkin burned. Trout dug a cellar for their new house and installed ducts throughout the house for a central heating system designed to burn wood slabs from the sawmills. He opened Jefferson Street with the construction of the new house. It is nominated to the National Register. Since there are no other historic structures associated with the Lufkin Foundry and Machine Company or Lufkin Industries, the significance is in the areas of commerce, industry, and architecture.